Review: Apple's fourth-generation iPod nano

Apple tells users to expect up to 24 hours of music playback or four hours of video playback; we had no problem listening to music for 30 hours. How much you skip songs, how often you turn the backlight (and how brightly), and how loud you have it set to play back music will all obviously have an impact on real world playback times.

As for video playback, the unit lasted through two hour and a half movies and then another hour and 45 minutes, when set to about half brightness. That's again more than Apple promises, but appears to be an hour less than the previous 3G nano, which stated five hours of playback and typically exceeded that by about 45 minutes as well. Being able to watch two full length movies from this tiny device seems pretty exceptional. When playing video games, the battery is taxed significantly harder, and it lasts roughly half as long, a bit over two hours.

Product Review Rundown

With the latest 4G iPod nano, Apple has delivered a more versatile, ultra thin form factor that should appeal to a broader audience than last year's square 3G nano. It has also polished and enhanced the software, with smart accelerometer integration, a slick Cover Flow view, greater accessibility, a handy Genius function, and audio recording features that the company has seemed too hesitant to add to the iPod line until now.

What's missing? Apple didn't set up a way to have uncompressed audio transcoded on the fly to the new iPods, a feature that would have appealed to audiophiles with time to spare. It cut a few corners such as FireWire charging to make the device even smaller and cheaper. And there's no AM radio feature for people who like to listen to angry static. Finally, it delivers less battery life than last year's larger, square nano in video playback, but its more than four hours of video lifespan seems very reasonable; users who want to watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy on a transoceanic flight can bring along an external battery pack.

It's simply hard to find much wrong with the new 4G iPod nano, which might be expected given that Apple has put another year's worth of polish on what was already a pretty cool little device. Anyone in the market for a slim, easy to use MP3 player should be extremely satisfied, particularly when they discover a handful of useful new features and twice the storage capacity at the same price as last year's model.

"This year's slightly revised "maintenance mode" iPod classic and earlier models do not support the Genius Playlist features, despite mistaken rumors that suggested this might be in the works."

Apple's product page says the new classic does support the new genius feature. Perhaps you should revise the article (unless if by "maintenance mode" you're talking about a previous ipod classic model...you did not include it in the list of the ones that do support the feature)?

I have an iPhone 3G and I was really skeptical of this new design with the curved glass before it came out, but I just had to have one. First off, the full screen adds balance to the design of the player. The old skinny nano had that tiny screen on top that just looks bizarre. The 4G is full and well-balanced. The software is on track too with an excellent display scheme. Now playing is gorgeous and the drop-down menus from holding the center button are awesome. I can't stop looking at it and playing with it. Well done Apple.

"shake to shuffle." While playback is rarely affected by bumping the device, if you give it a deliberate shake, you'll hear an electronic tone and a random new song will begin playing. This seems like an obvious feature to add, which raises the question of why this hasn't been widely introduced before by anyone else.

I have an iPhone 3G and I was really skeptical of this new design with the curved glass before it came out, but I just had to have one. First off, the full screen adds balance to the design of the player. The old skinny nano had that tiny screen on top that just looks bizarre. The 4G is full and well-balanced. The software is on track too with an excellent display scheme. Now playing is gorgeous and the drop-down menus from holding the center button are awesome. I can't stop looking at it and playing with it. Well done Apple.

(I chose blue...it was a hard choice)

Sounds great. Do you have an option to tilt it clockwise or is it just one way? I'm a leftie. Thanks.

"This year's slightly revised "maintenance mode" iPod classic and earlier models do not support the Genius Playlist features, despite mistaken rumors that suggested this might be in the works."

Apple's product page says the new classic does support the new genius feature. Perhaps you should revise the article (unless if by "maintenance mode" you're talking about a previous ipod classic model...you did not include it in the list of the ones that do support the feature)?

I picked up a new 120GB iPod Classic on Friday, and the genius is on it and it works as expected.

There is no setting to disable the shake to shuffle feature. At least I couldn't find one. What I was told (but didn't try) at the Apple store is to use the hold button. When on hold, shaking doesn't shuffle.

That seems like the best of all decisions. Typically you'll put it on hold when running so that you don't accidentally hit the buttons.

I'm personally unimpressed with the 4G nano. Its the first time its not significantly better than the previous generation.

For all the joking about the fatboy, its extremely comfortable to hold and use. The 3G nano feels tiny but has a BIGGER screen than the 4G. I don't see that anything significant has been added to the 4G. Double the memory is about it, and a simple price drop could have accomplished that.

I think Apple is thinking fashion to much and too the fatboy criticism too seriously and didn't realize people liked it just fine after it was released.

I also like that the 3G nano is smooth and rounded all over, where as noted the 4G has rough sharp edges at the top and bottom. Seems that they could have smoothed that down some. I'd be tempted to break out the sandpaper.

I'm so tempted to buy one. But for another 100 or 50, you can get the classic.

Hm.. I'll just stick with my 5G video for now.

I think the new iPod touch is a better deal. Now they have 3 iPods grouped around the same price. 4G nano 149/199, iPhone 3G 199, iPodTouch 229. I think the iPhone 3G is the best deal unless you don't want to deal with AT&T in which case the iPod touch for 229 is by far the best deal with lots of additional function over the nano.